Alpine Endurance Team enjoyed an ‘encouraging’ start to the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship at Imola last weekend (17-19 April), with a competitive fourth-place finish filling the French manufacturer with confidence for a successful season.
After clocking up more than 1,850km during the pre-event Prologue group test around the legendary Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, Alpine then topped the timesheets in FP2 on Friday afternoon, as Charles Milesi put the upgraded, race-winning #35 A424 prototype at the head of the Hypercar order at the beginning of its third and final campaign at the international pinnacle of the long-distance discipline.
The next day, the Frenchman advanced to the Hyperpole top ten shootout in qualifying to secure seventh on the starting grid for Sunday’s six-hour contest, in which team-mate Ferdinand Habsburg went immediately on the attack in front of a record crowd of 92,175 spectators, despatching Toyota’s Mike Conway and Peugeot’s Loïc Duval to climb to fifth over the course of the opening exchanges.
The team took advantage of the first Virtual Safety Car period to adjust the #35 crew’s strategy, with António Félix da Costa and Milesi subsequently maintaining the pace. The latter pulled off passes on Robert Kubica (Ferrari) and Raffaele Marciello (BMW) prior to fending off late pressure from the Swiss star’s stablemate René Rast to take the chequered flag fourth at the end of an intense and closely-fought curtain-raising contest, winding up just over 18 seconds adrift of the podium.
“It was a good race,” Milesi acknowledged. “We lost a bit of time changing all four tyres during the first Virtual Safety Car, but we still managed to optimise our performance. The top three were a cut above the rest, so this result is probably the best we could have achieved.
“We can be satisfied with the work done over the winter, and we know where we still need to improve. Spa will be an important step in coming back even stronger and continuing our preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”
For da Costa, the event marked a return to FIA WEC’s top-tier for the first time since 2023, but the former Formula E champion swiftly settled back into the groove, sharing the #35 A424’s fastest lap on Sunday – to the thousandth-of-a-second – with Habsburg.
“I’m happy with our performance in such a demanding race with a lot of neutralisations,” reflected the Portuguese star. “Making the right calls on strategy wasn’t easy, but the team did well and we got the most out of our car. Ferdinand and Charles drove an amazing race, and we can now look forward to Spa.”
“Congratulations to the team, as this result marks our best start to a season since the programme’s inception,” added the Austrian. “Everyone gave it their all, and we can be proud of how we approached the race, our level of performance and the spirit we showed.
“I really enjoyed working with my new engineers and new team-mates while continuing to get to know the car, especially in traffic, where the feeling is different from last year. There were some great battles, and I want to congratulate António and Charles, who did an incredible job to turn a seventh-place grid position into a fourth-place finish in such a competitive championship.”
The #36 Alpine similarly showed a strong turn-of-speed – particularly in the hands of impressive series debutant Victor Martins, who posted the second-quickest lap of the race, beaten only by Ferrari’s Nicklas Nielsen – but the Frenchman alongside compatriots Frédéric Makowiecki and Jules Gounon ultimately fell just shy of the points in 11th position after incurring a drive-through penalty for a breach of VSC procedures.
That disappointment notwithstanding, Alpine Team Principal Philippe Sinault professed himself pleased with the 2026-spec A424’s pace and potential.
“It was an encouraging start to the season,” he underlined. “From the moment we arrived at Imola, the car felt well-balanced and we made the most of every practice session to prepare for the race. We chose an aggressive approach, focusing almost exclusively on the soft tyres to understand their performance over time, while anticipating potentially cooler, more unpredictable conditions – and that paid off.
“Ferdinand made an excellent start, placing the #35 in the right group; António also did a very good job in his first race with the team, and Charles managed to navigate a conservative tyre and energy strategy to secure fourth place.
“As for the #36, feelings are more mixed. We made too many mistakes by not pitting during the first safety car period, and then picking up a penalty during the Virtual Safety Car period, but the pace was very close to that of the sister car, which is promising for the future. We still have a lot to learn, but we have a strong base and we can already see our improvement compared to last year.”
“This is a satisfying start to the season, as the goal was to confirm that the winter development work has paid off, which it clearly has,” echoed Alpine Tech Vice-President, Axel Plasse. “After qualifying seventh, finishing fourth on pure pace confirmed our potential. The key takeaway is that we can regularly operate in the upper third of the field if we maximise our package and avoid strategic and operational mistakes.
“Beyond the result, I spent the whole weekend with the team and felt a very positive dynamic, with strong cohesion, chemistry and a mindset defined by both support and high standards. There are still a few details to refine, but I am pleased with the impact of the organisational changes made over the winter and the solid foundation we now have for the rest of the season.”
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